Replacing a manually controlled valve with an electronically controlled valve typically requires closing and draining that section of the pipeline or conduit, removal of the manual valve and installation of an expensive valve in an existing water, gas or fluid supply conduit, as well as providing a power source, for example pneumatic or electric power, and the associated control circuitry. In most cases, this requires a plumber and/or other skilled tradesmen to do the installation. The cost of installation may exceed the cost of the valve itself. A method and apparatus to easily and inexpensively convert a manually controlled valve for an automatic operation, while retaining the ability to easily revert to manual operation, would be a useful and valuable solution in many situations.
In response to this need, a device that can be added inexpensively and easily to shut off the water supply to a property or to an appliance located at the property and can be controlled to shut off the water under a variety of conditions was developed and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,951 B1 to Drinkwater.
There are various other designs and implementations for automatically controlling various manual shut-off valves, varying in cost and complexity. However, what is needed is a valve actuator system that is more easily adapted to existing manual valves without interrupting plumbing connections, configurable to effectively cause or produce a valve control action such as a shut-down or shut-off action upon the occurrence of a specific event or condition, and capable of running on battery power for long periods of time without attention.